Can Mothers with COVID-19 Room with and Breast-Feed Their Infants During Their Hospital Stay?

Italy experienced high rates of COVID-19 early in the pandemic and was forced to make decisions about management of mothers and their newborns to avoid postnatal transmission. Initial guidance from the American Academy of Pediatrics endorsed mother-infant separation when maternal COVID-19 was suspected or confirmed.

In this prospective, cohort study in six maternity centers in Northern Italy, investigators enrolled 62 neonates (born in-hospital at ≥34 weeks' gestation; >2000 g, well appearing) from March to May 2020, whose mothers tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 but did not require respiratory support. Infants were tested for SARS-CoV-2 at 1 and 7 days, followed by clinical examination and testing at 20 days. At the time of diagnosis, 55% of …